Prop 16 Would Have Locked Californians into Multi-Billion Dollar Utility Rate Increases Now Before State Regulators

PG&E has some of the highest rates in the United States, and the energy giant is now seeking the largest rate increase in its history. PG&E is currently (as of April, 2010) requesting a $5 Billion rate increase at the California Public Utilities Commission - a thirty percent increase over three years, the largest in its history. Since its second major ratepayer bailout in 2003, PG&E Corporation is making massive new investments and signing multi-year powerplant fuel contracts to build new fossil fuel power plants throughout Northern California, as well as a major new 240 mile pipeline and fossil fuel importation terminal on the Oregon border. In short, this gas importation company is overinvesting in gas-fired power to maximize its profits, threatening California's economy with devastating rate increases from increasingly volatile gas prices. Thus, PG&E will continue to harm California's economy as the result of its poor investment decisions.

At issue in Prop 16 was PG&E's effort to make its customers captive again, after it was bailed out to surrender its power monopoly rights in 1996 and again for bankruptcy in 2003. To make California's economy captive, PG&E's Prop 16 would have disabled California local governments from exercising traditional local control over energy infrastructure planning, forcing elections and allowing a 34% minority to filibuster needed local infrastructure and planning, even for something as basic as providing power to new businesses and homes. That is why the California Asociation of Realtors came out officially opposed to Prop 16 - it would have harmed the economy and imposed gridlock on local communities in the middle of the nation's economic crisis. Silicon Valley's leading high tech association, California Manufacturers and Technology Association, opposed Prop 16. The Santa Clara County Chamber of Commerce Coalition, a coalition of Silicon Valley's local chambers of commerce, also voted to oppose Prop 16, as did the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, whose members voted 79-2 to oppose Prop 16, and the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce. See the articles below.